Graham Young reviews film, My Brother The Devil, playing at Odeon Broadway Plaza.

My Brother The Devil

But she’s clearly representative of a new kind of diversity in modern Britain.

And one which bodes well for its filmmaking future.

Here, she has taken an all too familiar and grimy subject – knife crime on a London estate – and given it a surprisingly deft spin in the cinematic equivalent of a specialised option on a brand new washing machine.

Not only that, but after some horribly visceral moments which leave the seriousness of the subject matter in no doubt, the whole thing even dares to suggest it has just come out of an accompanying tumble dryer with the promise of life now becoming comparatively fluffy and light.

Being gritty and depressing are weights which helped to sink the likes of Adulthood and Kidulthood.

But mash that texture up with notes of optimism and the merits of bacon and the difference is amazing.

By focusing her coming of age story on the relationships between two Egyptian brothers Rashid and Mo, played by James Floyd (The Infidel) and debut star Fady Elsayed, El Hosaini neatly bypasses a temptation to become bogged down with race.

And, when you see just how impressively diverse the cast of mostly untried actors is, that would have been an easy trap to fall into when the real issue is that people we don’t like, for whatever reason, can always come from our own stock.

My Brother The Devil is far from being a perfect film, but it has the kind of energy that more experienced filmmakers can lose.

Like Ben Drew’s Ill Manors earlier this year, good cinematography makes a big difference too – David Raedeker won the cinematography prize at Sundance for his work here.

The real surprise about My Brother The Devil is that the distributors were happy to let it only open at Showcase Cinemas last week without letting regional reviewers corroborate positive vibes from London.

So well done to the Odeon Broadway Plaza for taking it on from today, despite the Twilight avalanche.